installing fbsd from foreign system

[Volker]

Hi hackers!

Probably I will be proud to have the chance to support one of
Europe's major players in root server hosting for deploying FreeBSD
as a target platform for their customers.

I need to find a way to integrate the FreeBSD install process into
their current deployment system. Currently their install process is
running from a Linux install system which does the partitioning,
make_fs etc.

I found several options to integrate:

1) install a FAT partition, copy a bootable install system in it,
boot (bsdboot) an install kernel from FAT partition and begin
(unattended) installation (including fdisk, labeling, make_fs'ing).

Any thoughts on that? I think this might be the best option.

2) fdisk'ing, labeling and make fs from the Linux system if there
are any ported label + fs tools for Linux available - are they?

3) create an ext2 partition and copy the fbsd install system into it
and boot from there to begin install process (same as 1 except
running from ext2fs). Does a FreeBSD kernel support booting from
ext2fs (using mdfs for root-fs)? If so, how?

Any better thoughts? Any hints on how to proceed with one of the 3
options? PXE or anything else is not an option. I need to integrate
the install process into an existing deployment system.

I suspect to be the UFS problem to be the biggest one when it comes
to deal with that from a running Linux system.

Also as anything needs to run unattended, how do I set FreeBSD to
try DHCP on any local interface the kernel can find?

Greetings,

Volker